Pebbles in the pond

Face to Face with the Enemy

You’ll recall we are telling the story of The Great Being, the Singular Self that is living through each of us avatars. We are watching how the story unfolds on the planet Earth through the experiences of two Agents of Cosmic Intelligence, Melchizedek and Layla, here on a Mission that started in 200,000 BC. They are now in a new life around 40,000 BC.

The King looked them over closely. Melchizedek had never been this close to a member of the Rebellion — a creature from almost his own level of evolution who had chosen to never return to the One Identity — a phenomenon he had known about forever and still could not fully comprehend. In self-imposed telepathic radio silence with Layla, he could only use his own body language to keep the younger agent from freaking out, and so he made his movements strong and self-assured without giving offense to the King or to their squad leader boss. They waited in silence to be interrogated. Around them the tribe busied itself with its affairs, creating a bubble of the four of them in the spotlight of the blazing sun. Layla irrelevantly noticed a leaf sawing back and forth on its lazy trip to the ground.

The King grunted and half smiled, showing wolfish teeth alarmingly. Both agents felt that they must have been discovered already but did nothing to dodge the bullet. Melchizedek held back his impulse to take a surreptitious peek into the King’s mind. The King abruptly turned his back on them and went back into his tent with a hand gesture for them to follow. The squad leader went in first, then Melchizedek — known to the natives and alien King as Blu — and then Layla aka Ska.

The tent was dark until their eyes adjusted. The King sat and motioned for them to do the same. When they were in a small circle on the ground, he bit a small chunk off a psychedelic root and put it back on the rock, chewed thoughtfully for a moment, and then began the questioning.

“What happened?” he demanded of Blu in the local language. Fortunately the agents had learned most of the tiny existing vocabulary by reading the squad’s minds on the way back to camp.

“We were outnumbered as usual,” Melchizedek began, noting the instant flare-up of anger on the faces of the King and squad leader, who somehow took that to be accusatory. “And everyone fought bravely,” he went on, indicating with his head that the accolade included the squad leader and Ska (Layla), “but we had the great water at our backs and so there was no way to maneuver. We are the only survivors. That was only a reconnaissance in force. They will be back in greater numbers now that they know where we are.”

“How did they fight? As we do?” the King snarled.

“They protect each other better. They must train differently. We fight singly and they fight together against us. Also their weapons somehow hold together better than ours do. We must capture some of their weapons and study them,” Melchizedek recommended.

“How are we going to do that?” the King exploded. “You just said that they outfight us, outnumber us, and have better weapons!”

“For a short while we know the terrain better, until they learn it. We should be able to ambush a small patrol where we outnumber them and come down from higher ground on all sides, perhaps with the sun in their eyes,” Melchizedek answered evenly, keeping his voice as subservient as possible, although it still sounded too bold to his own ears.

The King grunted as if agreeing to this plan. He looked at the squad leader who nodded uncertainly, telegraphing his fear that Blu was starting to impress the King and might soon be his boss. Layla and Melchizedek both picked up a flash through the squad leader’s mind to kill Blu in his sleep, then clamped down on their minds reflexively, hoping the King did not notice their ability.

“Sir,” Layla in her male body, Ska, said respectfully with head bowed, and the King asked “What?”

“Great King, if we could train the slaves to fight, we would not be outnumbered,” Ska said, bringing instant snorts of derision from the King and squad leader.

“They are puny and weak,” the King said. “If we take meat from the mouths of the fighting men to feed the slaves, it would weaken not strengthen us!”

Ska bowed his head meekly and feigned agreement.

“Leave me now,” the King ordered, and the three of them left the tent. Outside two women were waiting and attached themselves to Blu and Ska immediately — obviously their wives, happy to see them alive. Blu and Ska enthusiastically kissed them and hugged them and allowed themselves to be led back to their own tents, which were next to each other. The squad leader walked off without further ado.

I don’t get it, Layla pathed. Is he pretending to not know what we are — just to torture us further?

Can’t know for sure, Melchizedek sent back, but I feel that his brain has taken him over and he does not remember that he himself is a disembodied consciousness not native to this world. The same as happened to us a lot last time.

We came awake and then we went back into that fugue, Layla pathed, which means he could be under its spell right now but next time he comes out of it, our gooses are cooked.